rejecting this suggestion of the devil, and by believing that all the threatenings of God against sin and sinners shall assuredly be accomplished.]

OBSERVE then, on the whole,

1. What need there is of fidelity in ministers

[Satan at this time, no less than formerly, suggests to men, "Ye shall not surely die:" and his emissaries all the world over are re-echoing the delusive sound. Every friend we have, father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife, the very instant we begin to dread the wrath of God, unite their endeavours to compose our minds, by saying, There is no such penalty against sin as ye suppose, nor have you any reason to fear that it shall be inflicted on you.' Our own wicked hearts also are but too ready to adopt a sentiment so gratifying to the mind, and to speak peace to us on insufficient grounds. And what would be the consequence if ministers also favoured such delusions, and, through fear of alarming you, neglected to warn you of your danger? Would not Satan triumph to a far greater extent than he already does? Would he not be secure of his prey? Is not this the very effect produced, wherever the Gospel, instead of being preached with apostolic fidelity, is kept upon the back ground, and modified to the taste of a deluded world? Be thankful then if you hear your guilt and danger faithfully set before you be thankful, as you would be if a man, seeing your house on fire, roused you from your slumbers, and saved you from death. And, if God have vouchsafed to you this mercy, improve it with all diligence, by fleeing from the wrath to come, and laying hold on eternal life.]

2. What a mercy it is, that, notwithstanding the truth of God in his threatenings, there is a way of salvation opened for us in the Gospel

[Yes; God can be true, and yet absolve the sinner from his guilt: for, in Christ Jesus, "Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other." The penalty of death has been inflicted upon the Lord Jesus Christ, as the surety and substitute of sinners: and, if we believe in him, all that he has done and suffered for us shall be so imputed to us as to be accepted of God in our behalf, so that God shall be "a just God, and yet a Saviour," yea "just, and yet the justifier" of sinful man. O blessed tidings! amply sufficient to pacify the most afflicted mind, and to warrant in our hearts the most joyful hope! Brethren, only believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I will adopt with confidence the very words of Satan, and say, "Ye shall not surely die." I will go further still, and from a doubtful

suggestion turn them to a direct affirmation, and say, 'Surely ye shall not die.' So says our blessed Lord himself: "My sheep shall never perish:" St. Paul also says, "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." On this, therefore, you may rely, with the fullest possible assurance: for, if the threatenings of God shall be fulfilled, so shall also His promises be: not one of them shall ever fail, as long as the world shall stand. Fear not then to see the worst of your state: fear not to acknowledge the extent of your guilt and danger, since the provision for you in Christ Jesus is fully commensurate with your necessities, and suited to your wants. Only believe in Him, and you shall not be ashamed or confounded world without end.]

V.

THE FALL OF MAN.

Gen. iii. 6, 7. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened.

THE happiness of our first parents in Paradise must have far exceeded any thing which we can conceive. Formed in the image of God, they had not a desire or thought contrary to His holy will. There was no cloud upon their understanding, no undue bias on their will, nothing inordinate in their affections. With respect to outward comforts, they possessed all that they could wish. God himself had planted a garden for them, and given them the whole produce, except one tree, for their support. Above all, they enjoyed the freest intercourse with their Maker, and conversed with Him as a man converseth with his friend. But this happiness, alas! was of short continuance: for Satan, who had left his first estate, and, from being a bright angel before the throne of God, was become an apostate spirit and a wicked fiend, he, I say, envied their felicity, and sought to reduce them to the same misery with himself. An opportunity for making his attempt soon

occurred. He saw the woman near the forbidden tree, and at a distance from her husband. So favourable an occasion was not to be lost. He instantly took possession of a serpent; which being confessedly the most subtle of all animals, was least likely to create suspicion in her mind, and fittest to be employed in so arduous a service. Through the instrumentality of this creature, Satan entered into conversation with her; and, as we learn from the history before us, succeeded in withdrawing both her and her husband from their allegiance to God. In the text we have a summary of the fatal tragedy: in it, as connected with the context, the whole plot is developed, and the awful catastrophe declared.

That we may have a just view of the conduct of our first parents, we shall consider,

I. Their temptation—

The scope of Satan's conversation with Eve was to persuade her that she might partake of the forbidden tree,

1. With safety

[With this view, his first attempt was to raise doubts in her mind respecting the prohibition. And here his subtilty is very conspicuous; he does not shock her feelings by any strong assertion; but asks, as it were for information, whether such a prohibition as he had heard of had been really given. Nevertheless, his mode of putting the question insinuates, that he could scarcely credit the report; because the imposing of such a restraint would be contrary to the generosity which God had shewn in other respects, and to the distinguished love which he had professed to bear towards them.

Now, though he did not so far prevail as to induce her to deny that God had withheld from her the fruit of that tree, yet he gained much even in this first address: for, he led her to maintain a conversation with him: he disposed her also to soften the terms in which the prohibition had been given": and though she might intend nothing more than to prevent

a God had said, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" and she, in reporting it, said, "Ye shall not eat of it or touch it, lest ye die;" thus converting a most positive threatening of instant and certain death, into a gentle caution against a possible, or probable, misfortune: "Touch not, for fear ye die.”

his entertaining any hard thoughts of God, she hereby emboldened him to prosecute his purpose in a more direct and

open manner.

Improving the advantage he had already gained, he proceeded to question in direct terms the grounds of her fears, in relation to the penalty: "Ye shall not surely die." He here intimates, that she must be mistaken with respect both to the extent and certainty of the penalty. God could never threaten "death" for such an offence as that: he could threaten nothing worse even for the most heinous transgression that could be committed: how then could he annex that to so small a matter as the eating of a piece of fruit? At least, if he did put forth his threat, he certainly would never execute it; "Ye shall not surely die:" it could not be, that a just and good God should ever proceed to such rigorous measures on so slight an occasion. By this daring assertion, he quite disarmed her; and persuaded her, that she must have misunderstood the divine declaration, or, at least, that it never could be carried into effect.]

2. With advantage

[Finding that Eve did not revolt at his impious assertions, he went on to direct and open blasphemy. He knew, that to an intelligent and holy being nothing was so desirable as knowledge: he therefore affirmed, that there was in the fruit of that tree a virtue capable of wonderfully enlarging her views, so that she and her husband should "become as gods," and possess a self-sufficiency and independence suited to that high character. In confirmation of this, he appeals to God himself; and blasphemously insinuates, that God, in withholding the fruit from them, had been actuated by nothing but envy, and a jealousy, lest they should become as wise and happy as himself.

Such was the temptation with which that "old serpent" assaulted Eve; hoping that, if he could prevail with her, he might, through her influence, overcome her husband also.]

Happy would it have been, if we could have reported of them, as we can of the second Adam, that they repelled the Tempter. But, in following the course of their history, we are constrained to notice, II. Their sin

Eve, overpowered by the alluring aspect of the fruit, and the hope of attaining a knowledge as superior to what she already possessed, as this serpent's was to that of all the rest of the creation, ate of the

fruit, and prevailed upon her husband to partake with herb.

Without inquiring how she prevailed with him, or what would have been the effect if she alone had fallen, let it suffice to know, that Adam transgressed in eating the forbidden fruit, and that this was the sin whereby he and all his posterity were ruined. That the offence may not be thought trivial, let us consider of what malignant qualities it was composed: 1. What pride!

[Our first parents were endowed with faculties unknown to any other creatures. While, in common with all the rest, they possessed a beautifully constructed frame of body, they had a rational soul also, which assimilated them to God; so that they were a connecting link between God and the brute creation, a kind of compound of both. Moreover, they were constituted lords of this lower world; and all other creatures were subjected to their dominion. None was above them but God himself. But they chose to have no superior: they affected to be as gods. What daring presumption! What criminal ambition! It was time indeed that "their loftiness should be bowed down, and their haughtiness be made low."]

2. What unbelief!

[God had spoken with a perspicuity which could not admit of misconstruction, and an energy that precluded doubt. Yet they listen to the suggestions of a wicked fiend, and believe the lies of Satan in preference to Jehovah's word. Can any thing be conceived more insulting to the Majesty of heaven than this? Can an offence be deemed light which offers such an indignity to the God of truth?]

3. What ingratitude!

[What could God have done more for them than he had done? What could they have, to augment their felicity? And, if any restraint at all was to be laid upon them for the purpose of trying their fidelity and obedience, what smaller restraint could be conceived than the prohibition of one single tree amidst ten thousand? Was one tree too much for Him to reserve, who had created all the rest for their use?

b A variety of questions might be asked respecting different parts of this history; but where God has not been pleased to inform us, we should be contented to be ignorant: and where no certainty can be attained, we judge it better to pass over matters in silence, than to launch out into the boundless and unprofitable regions of conjecture.